DOJ: Bridgeport man pleads guilty to defrauding Amazon of $210k.Wethersfield shooting of Branford dentist, young woman investigated as murder-suicide.Could UConn athletic director David Benedict be candidate for Auburn job?.Avon sergeant and his wife, East Granby’s library director, died in murder-suicide, medical examiner says.He made one of his biggest sales ever - $10,000 - for a crane truck in a rare color. Often it’s errors or unusual variations that make the toys valuable. He does profess a weakness for “errors,” vehicles that have mistakes ranging from a mismatched wheel to an upside-down sticker to a damaged part. Only one room in his house is devoted to pre-1969 Matchboxes, including the coronation coach that started it all, as well as the firm’s first three vehicles: a green-and-red road roller, a cement mixer and a dump truck.Īsked the favorites of his huge collection, Mack says he doesn’t really have any.
Turning 13 when the change happened and just beginning to collect seriously, he liked the new designs and values them as much as the old-school variety. Many collectors focus on “regular wheels” Matchboxes made between 19, but not Mack. Facing a crisis, the firm introduced its “Superfast” line with racing wheels and slicker designs in 1969, ending what is known as “the regular wheels” era, Mack says. With sporty racing rim wheels and flamboyant designs, they were faster and flashier than Matchboxes. In the late 1960s, Mattel - which today owns Matchbox - introduced Hot Wheels. By the early 1960s, Matchbox was churning out more than a million toy vehicles a week, Mack says.īut there was trouble on the horizon. Sturdy and just 49 cents each, they proved hugely popular in the U.K., the U.S. The firm began producing meticulously engineered replicas of cars, trucks, busses, farm equipment, ambulances, fire trucks and miscellaneous vehicles. The Matchbox name came from the co-owner’s daughter whose school decreed that any toy brought into the classroom had to fit inside a matchbox, he says. That led the firm’s owners to conclude there was a market for small die-cast toy cars and trucks. Matchbox’s original parent company, Lesney, first made a name for itself in 1953 by selling a million miniature replicas of Queen Elizabeth II’s horse-drawn coronation coach, Mack says. He attracts visitors from as far away as Germany and New Zealand.
Mack opens his home to fellow Matchbox fans just give him a call and he’ll schedule a visit to peruse his massive collection.
For 30 years he ran an annual Matchbox convention that at its height attracted 175 dealers. He has written more than a dozen books on Matchbox toys and has produced a monthly newsletter for collectors since 1977. In addition to having one of the world’s largest collections of Matchbox toy vehicles and items - in later incarnations the company produced everything from Pee-wee Herman merchandise to plastic space toys - Mack is one of the world’s leading experts on the firm and its products.
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